It is unfortunately a fact that a large proportion of the motor vehicle owners and operators are individually without sufficient financial responsibility to satisfy a judgment even of a small size, and the net result is that the persons injured in body or in property are eventually without legal redress. Find cheap auto insurance online.
This raises a demand, and it is a serious and persistent demand, that he who owns and operates a motor vehicle upon the public highways shall be compelled to protect himself and the general public, so that the persons injured may be compensated and reparation may be furnished for damages received. This demand has caused the legislature in a large number of states to consider the question seriously.

I have been unable to check up the various states in order to determine what proposals have been made to the various legislatures, but in my own state, Massachusetts, during the past several years, the matter has been seriously under consideration both by the legislature and by special com-missions appointed from time to time to consider the whole question.

Practically every remedy suggested either by commissions or introduced to the various legislatures has been based on the theory that automobiles, being dangerous engines of destruction, are being operated on our public highways by those who do not even fear being compelled to pay damages for the injuries they cause, and, therefore, it is the duty of the state to require every person who operates an automobile or motor vehicle to furnish protection to the public against injuries.

This is within the constitutional power of the legislature, for it has been held that a motor vehicle can only be operated on the public highways by permission of the state, and one who operates a motor vehicle without that permission is an outlaw.